Shelley’s “Prometheus Unbound” at Red Bull Theater

Monday, November 18, Red Bull Theater will present a reading of Shelley’s “lyrical drama” Prometheus Unbound, directed by Craig Baldwin and featuring John Douglas Thompson, Adam Green, Jennifer Ikeda, Miriam Silverman, and Marc Vietor among the stellar cast. For tickets to this rare theatrical treat, click here.

Reprinted below is a fascinating overview of the piece from The Romanticist Research Group of New York University:

Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound: The Essential Background

Originally posted on September 23, 2013

While in Italy in 1818, Percy Shelley began thinking about his next major work, Prometheus Unbound, and the intricacies required to launch what he expected to become his magnum opus. Because of his high regard for the theater, his great work would be a “lyrical drama” intended neither for the stage nor for mass circulation. In the play’s Preface, the poet explains he sought “simply to familiarize the highly

refined imagination of the more select classes of poetical readers with beautiful idealisms of moral excellence.” But despite its esoteric content and suitability for “more select classes of poetical readers,” he made several efforts to get his drama published. Given this history and Shelley’s intentions, our decision to stage the play onNovember 18th should stir numerous rich conversations on this site and during the post-show discussion.

In writing the drama, Shelley hoped to answer a question that had perplexed him for most of his life: how could society successfully eliminate injustice and despotism without violence? As a second-generation Romantic poet living in the post-French Revolution, Napoleonic era, Shelley did not directly witness the bloodshed and despair that the events in France had caused, as Wordsworth had years earlier. However, the widespread disillusionment was still palpable for those of his generation. The Reign of Terror and the subsequent rise of Napoleon had caused many to lose hope in lofty Enlightenment principles like “Liberty” and “Equality” that had originally stirred the revolution’s fervor. Moreover, Shelley lived through more than 20 years of war across Europe. These realities shaped his thinking and literary works.

In 1819, Shelley ruminated over the prevention of violence and injustice in his poem, “The Masque of Anarchy.” He composed it in response to the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester, where English soldiers killed innocent civilians who were demanding parliamentary reform. The poem details one of the first—and finest—descriptions of mass civil disobedience. Its memorable refrain, “ye are many – they are few,” would serve as an inspiration to both Thoreau in the States and, later, Gandhi in India. In his verse, Shelley addresses the multitude directly: “Stand ye calm and resolute,/ Like a forest close and mute,/ With folded arms, and looks which are/ Weapons of an unvanquished war” (ll. 319-322).

When he turned to his “lyrical drama” that same year, he wanted to offer another kind of response. But this version, he thought, would require a more proactive and sustainable formulation—rather than the reactive prescription offered by his “Masque.” Not only was he thinking about the prevention of violence; he also wanted to conceive a world that could rid itself of oppression. And he believed that the fusion between elevated poetry and drama would serve as the correct genre for the content he would put forth. His objective, however, would prove to be an ambitious one since it demanded restarting human history by literally going back in time. It is no coincidence that part of the play’s setting takes place in the Indian Caucasus, the locale believed at the time to be the site of human kind’s origins. This “second chance,” as it were, would also necessitate the renovation and reformation of the human psyche. Indeed, Shelley hoped to provide the blueprint for tyranny’s non-violent overthrow as well as a cosmic-wide revolution.

The Classic Promethean Myth

Shelley turned to the Promethean myth itself because he was convinced it, too, needed rethinking. The story dates back to Hesiod’s Theogony from ancient Greece, c. 8th Century BCE, who describes the Titan as a trickster deity. Approximately three centuries later, Aeschylus turned the popular story into an elaborate dramatic trilogy, of which only its first part, Prometheus Bound, survives. It wasn’t the classic story about the stolen fire bequeathed to humans that unsettled Shelley. What troubled him was that Aeschylus’s account reconciled the “Champion (Prometheus) with the Oppressor of Mankind (Jupiter).” Jupiter’s absolute despotism and intractable nature not only persist after Prometheus’s release; they also go unaddressed. In its Greek iteration, after Prometheus “discloses” his secret knowledge about Jupiter’s potential downfall, Jupiter allows Hercules to unbind Prometheus. For these reasons, Shelley committed to producing a markedly distinct version. The poet explained: “The Prometheus Unbound of Aeschylus supposed the reconciliation of Jupiter with his victim” only after the Titan reveals the threat to Jupiter’s “empire.”

Because Shelley staunchly resisted the acquiescence that perpetuated the very power relations he wished to eradicate, his protagonist does not make peace with Jupiter. Instead, Prometheus collaborates with the drama’s other equally important characters to make Jupiter’s autocratic reign obsolete. This lofty objective is not achieved through violence, revenge, or retribution. It becomes possible through forgiveness, love, self-awareness, and shared understanding.

The First Three Acts

Initially, Shelley wrote three acts of the play. Though the first act rehearses much of Aeschylus’s plot, the poet presents one radical difference at the onset: Prometheus’s recantation. As the act opens, the Titan appears already in chains. Soon, a projection of himself recast as the “Phantasm of Jupiter” is displayed. The cinematic-like portrayal recreates his wrathful curse at Jupiter for enchaining him. When the Titan’s mother, Earth, confirms that he had indeed uttered the diatribe, Prometheus recalls it and admits his error. This marks one of the play’s two major climaxes; it also incites the god’s profound mental transformation. This turning point allows him to resist any subsequent physical or verbal torment by Mercury or the Furies—sent by Jupiter to obtain the secret known only to the Titan. Thereafter, beautiful spirits of nature console Prometheus with hope and ideals and, more significantly, echo his new found interior fortitude.

Shelley’s second act introduces the play’s heroine, Asia, who is equally, if not more, important than her counterpart. This represents yet another major change from the original Greek plot. The act features the play’s crucial underworld journey undertaken by Asia, the representation of love, and Panthea, Asia’s sister. As the act opens, Panthea describes two dreams to Asia that presage Prometheus’s release and the world’s imminent renewal. This revelation is followed by their mystical underworld journey led by beneficent spiritual forces and fauns as well as enhanced by various echoes and songs. Toward the end of their fantastical expedition, they come face to face with Demogorgon. Literally the “people’s monster,” Demogorgon is a multi-dimensional, genderless emblem—an inactive and reflective energy that requires activation (to be described more thoroughly in a future post). It is during this encounter that Asia literally and metaphorically uncovers the “deep truth”: her literal descent to the deep is but a figurative reflection of the profound journey into her own unconscious. Among the many aspects Demogorgon represents, the spirit symbolizes the truth and potential that Asia herself had already possessed. Their dialogic exchange arguably serves as a prototype of modern psychoanalysis. Following her personal discovery, Asia ascends back to the earth on a beautiful winged chariot as time and history restart. It is at this point that love (Asia) literally announces the emergence of a “diviner day.”

In Act III, Jupiter, after marrying and raping Thetis, makes his first and only appearance. Sitting on his high throne, he awaits the offspring of their union. Demogorgon, the self-admitted offspring who also symbolizes Jupiter’s futility in the recently sprung Promethean society, brings Jupiter down into the “bottomless void.” Following this event, Hercules releases Prometheus, and the Spirit of the Hour proclaims the good news around the world: that the “sceptreless” and “classless” multitude, now living harmoniously, can relish the new freedoms that the joyous revolution has introduced. The spirit also announces an extraordinary achievement for women who “[speak] the wisdom once they could not think,/ [Look] emotions once they feared to feel,/ And changed to all which once they dared not be” (III. iv. 156-159). Meanwhile, Prometheus and Asia—reunited at long last—retire to a cave to cultivate the arts, one of the major founding principles of the newly conceived civilization.

The Cenci and Prometheus Unbound Act IV

It was after writing these three acts that Shelley turned to writing The Cenci, a historical tragedy based on a 15th Century Italian story about a notorious father who raped his own daughter, Beatrice. In this play, that Shelley hoped would actually be staged in London, he depicts Beatrice’s gradual transformation into her father’s own tyrannical-like qualities (we will also feature a more detailed post about the relation between these dramas). This transformation can be likened, of course, to the French Revolution that had already offered Europe the specific paradigm of trading one tyranny in for another.

After creating this controversial tragedy, then, Shelley returned to Prometheus Unbound to add a fourth act. This addendum constituted a single scene that would extend the revolutionized global order—already established in Act III—to the cosmos. Shelley audaciously created his own apocalyptic vision. It would materialize as a colossal celebration containing songs and dance that would spread the new world cheer; it would also emblematize the celestial harmony arising in the wake of Prometheus’s mental reformation and Asia’s successful mission. Promethean society, in other words, represents an entirely renovated universe: a revolution spanning the inner reaches of the mind to the outermost layers of space.

And Shelley’s bold undertaking would serve numerous functions. It would establish the society’s lasting harmony. It would also offer a structural symmetry to the play: a perfect balance among the number of acts and scenes. Lastly, it would give the drama’s final lines, a series of instructional directives for maintaining the new social harmony, to Demogorgon–the “people’s monster” or “people’s potential” itself. Struck by her husband’s achievement, Mary Shelley considered this act the play’s culminating “hymn.”

Staging the Play and Upcoming Posts

Given the drama’s highly complex, abstracted, and even ethereal nature, one might puzzle over our decision to stage it. In our next series of posts, we will offer additional thoughts on this specific subject. In the meantime, however, we can preliminarily affirm the following. As we learned with staging Sardanapalus last year, any admonition against bringing a presumed “unstageable” play to life—even directly from the author himself—provides a signal for us to undertake just the opposite. It seems the warning transforms into a platform that, as in the case of Demogorgon, unleashes an unknown and unprecedented potential.

-Omar F. Miranda

Prometheus Unbound
Monday, November 18, 7:30 p.m.
Red Bull Theater
Lucille Lortel Theater
121 Christopher Street
Between Bleecker and Hudson
Click here for tickets.

Performing Closet Drama: Milton’s “Samson Agonistes” as a staged reading by Red Bull Theater

As my colleague Randall Sessler pointed out in a recent post, Milton claimed his “dramatic poem” Samson Agonistes was not to be staged, but should be read as a tragedy.Professor Jeffrey Miller of Montclair State University, present at the talk back session following Red Bull Theater’s staged reading of Milton’s poem, said Milton was aware of the poem’s potential for staging, and his protests are designed to prevent that eventuality. Miller suggested that although Milton was adamant the dramatic poem not be staged, it is unclear he would have been opposed to what happened onstage at the Lucille Lortel Theater Monday, October 14, 2013. Professor Miller said that after his blindness, which is the period to which most scholars date the composition of Samson Agonistes, Milton’s writing process was one of dictation, and that Milton’s dictation was a performative process not unlike the reading performance by Red Bull’s actors.

Michael Sexton, director of the Red Bull reading and artistic director of the Shakespeare Society, describes the poem as reminiscent of Greek tragedies: “There’s a lot of Greek in the poem…it’s as if Prometheus Bound were married to the Book of Job.” Sexton said he had been dismayed upon being asked to direct the reading because “it’s dense, difficult, and Milton said not to do it,” but that he was surprised at how well it worked as a staged reading, attributing much of its success to the poem’s “great music.” Though Milton’s language is beautiful, it is also difficult. Dakin Matthews, who played a member of the Danite chorus, said Milton was more difficult than Shakespeare, because the verse is less regular, and “Milton experimented with moving the pauses in sentences, and with syntax…He writes longer sentences but denser for their length.” Certainly Milton’s dense and beautiful language rendered the long speeches musical and appealing, but the play has minimal action. It is written on the Greek model: never more than two speakers “on stage” at the same time, Samson alternately speaks with the chorus and one of four or five visitors, and all action takes place off stage, to be reported by a messenger. Since the play beings after Samson has been taken captive and blinded, and his death takes place off stage, nothing really happens onstage.

And yet, the actors and director found much to perform. Sexton set the stage by placing the three chorus members in tall stools on the left of the stage, with Samson and his current interlocutor standing front and center, while the actors not currently reading sat in a row further back on the stage. As Samson’s father Manoa (played by Richard Easton), his wife Dalila (Christina Rouner), and the Philistine giant Harapha of Gath (Ron Cephas Jones) visit Samson (Robert Cuccioli), they used the chorus’ elaborate descriptions of their approaches to convey much of their character in the walk up to the front of the stage. They used volume, expression, and most interestingly, gesture, to reinforce the emotion with which they imbued their readings. Even whether they looked at Cuccioli while speaking to Samson lent interpretive power: one of the most amusing moments of the play was when Samson mournfully imagined himself in “contemptible old age,” at which words Easton, playing his elderly father Manoa, suddenly looked up at him in surprise.

When asked by an audience member whether he thought it could be successfully performed in a full staging, Sexton said that were he to stage it, he would stage it like a concert or oratorio—more as the presentation of a text than a full staging. Milton’s play owes so much to the Greek dramatic tradition that this seems to be the most appropriate choice, and a closet drama benefits most from a sparse staging. But this is where Romantic “closet dramas” differ from their Miltonic predecessor: even the most Greek of Byron’s dramas, Marino Faliero, The Two Foscarii, and Sardanapalus, are better described as halfway between Shakespeare and Aeschylus. We will see next month how a less realistic Romantic drama, Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound, fares in the medium of the staged reading. (For information and tickets, click here.)

Veronica Goosey

Reblogged from The Romantics Research Group of New York University.

John Milton’s “Samson Agonistes” and the Rise of Mental Theater

On Monday October 14th at 7:30 pm at the Lucille Lortel Theater (for more into and tix, visithttp://www.redbulltheater.com ), Red Bull Theater will be putting on a staged reading of John Milton’s Samson Agonistes. Milton’s work combines Hebrew scripture and Greek tragedy in order to tell the story of the blind and imprisoned Samson. Red Bull’s selection could not have been more perfect because Milton’s work is often cited as a founding model for Romantic mental theater. With the staged reading of Percy Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound just a little over a month away, Milton’s Samson Agonistes offers the perfect primer.

Milton first published Samson Agonistes with Paradise Regain’d in 1671. The title page of the reads, ”Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is added Samson Agonistes.” The initial title page suggests a hierarchical relationship between Paradise Regain’d and Samson Agonistes. While the relationship between the two works is indeed interesting, I want to focus on the title page and essay Milton included before Samson Agonistes. In the essay, titled “Of that sort of Dramatic Poem which is call’d Tragedy,” Milton claims his work was never intended for the stage and instead should be read as a tragedy.The play itself lacks many of the features of drama: there are no act or scene breaks, no stage direction, very little action (and when there is action, it occurs offstage) and an intense examination of the interior workings and motivations of the characters. The absence of these usual dramatic markers has led literary scholars and performers to find new criteria for dividing the play into parts.The play itself offers one possible “structure.” Dialogue, soliloquy, and choruses disrupt one another and mark crucial turns in plot. Furthermore, as Alan Richardson points out in A Mental Theater, the dramatic poem’s “basic dramaturgical pattern, a suffering protagonist confronting a succession of tormenting antagonists in a series of dialogues broken by soliloquy and choruses, recurs both in Manfred and in the first act of Prometheus Unbound” (15).

The influence Samson Agonistes had on Romanticism and Romantic era dramatic practice, therefore, is evident in several ways. First, the fact that Milton’s concept of a “dramatic poem” that emphasizes the inner workings of characters finds a home in the Romantic period seems fitting. After all, the Romantics are known for their inward turn and hybrid forms, most notably the lyrical ballad, the historical novel, the prose poem, and, as Shelley claims of Prometheus Unbound, the lyrical drama. Second, Milton’s prefatory essay and its claim that his dramatic poem was never intended for the stage cannot but remind one of Charles Lamb’s famous 1811 essay “On the Tragedies of Shakespeare Considered with Reference to Their Fitness for Stage Production” and its assertion that Shakespeare’s tragedies are better read than performed. Third, Milton’s prefatory remarks also foreshadow similar claims that Romantic writers including Lord Byron and William Wordsworth would make about their dramatic efforts a century and a half later.

The staged reading of Samson Agonistes will not only challenge Milton’s preface, but, along with the staged reading of Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound, provide a new means of examining Milton’s influence on Romanticism.

–Randall Sessler

Reblogged from The Romantics Research Group of New York University.

Revelation Readings Continue with “Swansong” by Patrick Page

The latest in Red Bull Theater’s Revelation Readings series is Swansong, a play by actor/playwright Patrick Page, directed by Roger Rees.

A moving tale of a dramatic friendship, Swansong is based on true events from the lives of the playwrights Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare. The cast for the reading includes Patrick Page and Tom Hammond.

Patrick Page is a longtime collaborator with Red Bull Theater and played the Cardinal in our 2010 production of The Duchess of Malfi. Patrick has an extensive a varied career on Broadway and Off-Broadway. Most recently he originated the role of Norman Osborn/the Green Goblin in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.

For tickets, please click here.

Swansong
Monday, December 10, 7:30 p.m.
Red Bull Theater
Lucille Lortel Theater
121 Christopher Street
New York, New York, 10014
Between Bleecker and Hudson
#1 Train to Christopher Street or M20 Bus to West 4th Street

Red Bull Theater Kicks Off Season with “The Miser”

Welcome back, Red Bull Theater fans!

We’re kicking off the new season with a gala benefit reading of Molière’s “The Miser.”

Directed by Doug Hughes, this reading features some of the finest talent in the theater today, including Steven Boyer, Rachel Brosnahan, Andrew Hovelson, Richard Kind, TR Knight, Nicole Lowrance, Jan Maxwell, John Procaccino, Reg Rogers, Richard Thomas, John Tillostson, and Marc Vietor.

Come join Red Bull Theater in our new home at the Lucille Lortel Theater, 121 Christopher Street (between Hudson and Bleecker).

To buy tickets for this exciting evening, please call 212.352.3101 or visit Red Bull Theater’s website.

Genet’s The Screens

Next up in Red Bull Theaters’s Revelation Reading series is Jean Genet’s The Screens, coming on Monday, March 26th at 7:30 p.m. This epic exploration of the Algerian Arab revolt against their French colonizers exalts the individual and relishes the theatrical.

Genet began writing the play in 1955 and continued working on it into the 1970s. First performed in a German translation in 1961, The Screens has a long and complex production history, including a production by Peter Brook in 1964 as part of his Theatre of Cruelty project with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Red Bull Theater’s reading will feature a translation by Paul Schmidt.

The reading will be directed by Tracy Cameron Francis and will feature Heather Raffo and Najla Said, with Carlo Alban, Dahlia Azama, Ronan Babbitt, Farah Bala, Hunter Canning, Neimah Djourabchi, Rich Dreher, Ramsey Faragallah, Sevan Greene, Maria Helan, Mia Katigbak, Bushra Laskar, Piter Marek, Chris Masullo, Roberta Maxwell, Sade Namei, Jens Rasmussen, Betty Shamieh, plus live Tabla by Zafer Tawil.

A Bull Session featuring Judith Miller will follow the reading.

Please click here for tickets.

The Screens
Monday, March 26th, 7:30 p.m.
Theater at St. Clements
423 West 46th Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues)
New York, New York

The Maids Opens Tonight!

Red Bull Theater’s thrilling new production of Jean Genet’s The Maids opens tonight!

Directed by Jesse Berger and starring Ana Reeder, Jeanine Serralles, and J. Smith-Cameron, this seductively playful and incendiary masterpiece opens for a strictly limited run through April 1.

Seating is extremely limited in this intimate setting–no seat is more than three rows from the action. Book your tickets now!

To buy tickets for The Maids, click here.

The Maids
Red Bull Theater
The Theater at St. Clements
423 West 46th Street
New York NY
(Between 9th and 10th Avenues)

Next in the Revelation Readings Series: Lorenzaccio

There’s a rare treat in store for fans of the Red Bull Theater: a reading of Alfred de Musset’s sensational Lorenzaccio coming up Monday, February 6, at 7:30.

Known as “the French Hamlet,” Lorenzaccio is set in 16th-century Florence and spins a complex tale of politics, murder, and betrayal among the Medici. The play was inspired by George Sand’s Une conspiration en 1537.

De Musset originally envisioned Lorenzaccio as a closet drama, and the play was not produced during his lifetime. Since then it has enjoyed several successful stagings, including a French production that ran briefly on Broadway in 1958, and a production by Britain’s National Theatre, starring Greg Hicks, in 1983.

Lorenzaccio‘s cast features David Barlow, Chris Bresky, Celeste Ciulla, Daniel Davis, Philip Goodwin, Jennifer Ikeda, Santino Fontana, Cynthia Mace, and Matthew Rauch. The reading will be directed by Joseph Hardy. Lorenzaccio is translated and adapted by John Strand.

Join us for this sizzling treat! To buy tickets for Lorenzaccio, please click here.

The Government Inspector
Monday, February 6th, 7:30 p.m.
Theater at St. Clements
423 West 46th Street (between 9th and 10th)
New York City

For more information about Red Bull Theater’s Obie-winning Revelation Readings and this season’s full schedule, please click here.

Jacobean Genet

What does Jean Genet have in common with the Jacobean playwrights? Join us for a Bull Session on Genet and Classical Theater on Tuesday, January 31st, and find out! The discussion will feature dramaturg Bill Coco, playwright Jean-Claude van Italie, and Red Bull Theater’s Artistic Director Jesse Berger.

Join us for a glass of wine at PicNic Market & Café Tuesday from 6-7. Click here for tickets.

Jacobean Genet
Tuesday, January 31, 6:00 p.m.
PicNic Market and Café
2665 Broadway (between 101st and 102nd Streets, #1 train to 103rd Street)

A King and No King Next Up in Revelation Readings Series

Coming up on Monday, January 23, is Red Bull Theater’s reading of Beaumont and Fletcher’s juicy tragicomedy A King and No King. A King and No King is one of the best known and most highly praised works in the Beaumont and Fletcher canon.

First performed in 1611, A King and No King remained popular during the 17^th and 18th centuries because of its observations about the nature and limits of royal power…and what happens when the monarch falls short of the kingly ideal and transgresses against “natural law.” The play was frequently produced after the Restoration, and the phrase “a king and no king” entered the popular lexicon as a commentary on the problems associated with the kingship of Charles II. Prominent fans of A King and No King included Samuel Pepys and John Dryden, whose own play Love Triumphant (1694) bears a strong resemblance to Beaumont and Fletcher’s play.

Michael Sexton, Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Society, will direct the reading. There will be a post-reading Bull Session with Professor Mario DiGangi.

A King and No King stars Matthew Rauch as Arbaces, the eponymous king (and yet no king…you’ll have to come to the show to find out why). The wonderful cast for this reading also includes Michelle Beck, Guy Boyd, Jennifer Ikeda, Mark Nelson, Robert Stanton, and Sam Tsoutsouvas.

For tickets to A King and No King, please click here.

A King and No King
Monday, January 23, 7:30 p.m.
The Theater at St. Clements
423 West 46th Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues)
New York City

For more information about Red Bull Theater’s Obie-winning Revelation Readings and this season’s full schedule, please click here.

To make a tax-deductible contribution to Red Bull Theater, please click here.